Noticeboard

If you are unable to attend an appointment with one of the doctors or nurses, please telephone to cancel your appointment.

Out of Hours

Monday through Thursday between 6.30 pm and 8.00 am the following day and between 6.30 pm on Friday and 8.00 am the following Monday, ring NHS 111

Home Visits

Home visits are for the totally housebound or very seriously ill. Please telephone before 10.30am and be prepared to give the receptionist some indication of the nature and urgency of the problem. The doctor will usually wish to speak to you before arranging to visit.

Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the Health Centre

Complaints Procedure

Patient Complaint Process

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the personnel working at the Practice, please let us know. We operate a complaint procedure as part of an NHS complaints system, which meets national criteria.

How to Complain

We hope that we can sort most problems out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If you wish to make a formal complaint, please do so AS SOON AS POSSIBLE - ideally within a matter of a few days. This will enable us to establish what happened more easily. If doing that is not possible your complaint should be submitted within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem; or within 12 months of discovering that you have a problem. You should address your complaint in writing to the Practice Manager (you can use the attached form). He/she will make sure that we deal with your concerns promptly and in the correct way. You should be as specific and concise as possible.

Complaining on behalf of Someone Else

We keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality (a separate leaflet giving more detail on confidentiality is available on request). If you are not the patient, but are complaining on their behalf, you must have their permission to do so. An authority signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness or infirmity) of providing this. A Third Party Consent Form is provided below.

What we will do

We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days and aim to have fully investigated within 10 working days of the date it was received. If we expect it to take longer we will explain the reason for the delay and tell you when we expect to finish. When we look into your complaint, we will investigate the circumstances; make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned; make sure you receive an apology if this is appropriate, and take steps to make sure any problem does not arise again.

You will receive a final letter setting out the result of any practice investigations.

Taking it Further

The Practice Management team hope that if you have a problem you will use the Practice’s Complaints Procedure. However, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us, you can contact NHS England, the NHS Commissioner, who leads the National Health Service in England.

We endeavour to offer the best possible care for our patients and are very happy to receive compliments about the care you receive.

Violence Statement

We have a zero tolerance policy towards any form of violence. The practice considers aggressive behaviour to be any personal, abusive and/or aggressive comments, cursing and/or swearing, physical contact and/or aggressive gestures.

The practice will request the removal of any patient from the practice list who is aggressive or abusive towards a doctor, member of staff, other patient, or who damages property.

All instances of actual physical abuse on any doctor or member of staff, by a patient or their relatives will be reported to the police as an assault.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

We take every possible step to ensure confidentiality in handling of personal information about all patients; held in manual and computer records. Our handling of your personal information is governed by the data protection act.

MUTUAL RESPONSIBILITIES

It is our responsibility to offer you all mentioned services. We request you to take the responsibility of keeping your booked appointments and if you are unable to attend, to cancel them as soon as possible.

We promise to offer all services in the most courteous and friendly manner. We request every one using the services to reciprocate. Any form of verbal or physical abuse will not be tolerated. We may report any such instances to the police if necessary.